By Kate Augusto

Some Northeastern faculty members feel that the university is being run like a corporation and they are being marginalized by senior administration, said Carol Glod yesterday, chair of the Agenda Committee, in a presentation during Faculty Senate yesterday.

The revelation preceded a scheduled executive session on the heels of Provost Ahmed Abdelal’s resignation announcement.

“I’ve been told that the last time [we went into a planned executive session] was during the Vietnam War,” Glod said.

As chair, she outlined insecurities of anonymous tenure-track faculty members who feel disconnected to the decisions being made by senior administrators.

“[These insecurities have] risen enough to a level that we’ve tried to address these concerns behind the scenes,” Glod said. “The next step is to listen to the concerns that have been raised and to develop a plan in concert with the president on what is the best way to proceed. Now is the best time [to develop that plan].”

Among the issues shared with faculty was anxiety about tenure and promotions. According to the Faculty Handbook, tenure-track faculty undergo an annual review. However, tenure-track faculty who started under former president Richard Freeland are now facing different standards under President Joseph Aoun.

“When [faculty who were hired while Freeland was president] had their yearly review, it was based on previous expectations; they were told they were on track,” said Robert Hall, chair of the African American Studies department. “But now … the ante is up.”

Faculty members are also concerned about the status of the Interdisciplinary Faculty Initiative (IFI), which was started last year under President Aoun with the goal of hiring 30 faculty members at the senior level within three years. This is in addition to Freeland’s Academic Investment Plan, which was created four years ago and aims to hire 100 tenure and tenure-track faculty during five years. Despite the establishment and implementation of these plans, the number of tenure and tenure-track professors at Northeastern has dwindled in the past 10 years, according to graphs in Glod’s presentation.

Other faculty concerns include an outdated Faculty Handbook, which was last updated for the 2000-2001 academic year; the lack of faculty input in major curriculum decisions, like the modern languages program being moved to the School of Professional and Continuing Studies without a faculty vote; and some failure to follow official procedures, like the appointment of an athletics committee chair without the required senate approval.

Hall said these oversights are a reflection of the leadership of Aoun and the senior administration, which he said “borders on impulsive.”

Glod said past Northeastern presidents met with Faculty Senate on a regular basis.

“There was one occasion where the president met with the Faculty Senate leadership,” she said. “That’s not in the spirit of how the university has been governed traditionally.”

Despite the tensions, Glod said the problems can and should be corrected.

“[In a meeting with Aoun during the summer] I told the president to stop saying [the phrase] ‘the academic side of things,'” Glod said. “I think we’re all on the same side here.”

– News Staff writer Derek Hawkins contributed to this report